


Outed

by peachcandykiddo



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Accidental Coming Out, Coming Out, Confessions, Forced Out of the Closet, Gen, Love Confessions, M/M, Protective Tsukishima Kei
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 14:11:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16536077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachcandykiddo/pseuds/peachcandykiddo
Summary: Kei cares a lot for Yamaguchi. So much that sometimes it hurts.So naturally, when something earth-shattering happens to Yamaguchi Kei is the first to rush to his side. He never would have expected that he would end up with his feelings reciprocated.





	Outed

Kei wasn’t really one for panicking. He was usually able to sort through a situation in his mind fairly quickly, logic and reason shutting down any irrationality. So yea, he wasn’t one for panicking.

 

But what he was doing now, that was panicking.

 

Because the most logical and rational outcome was the worst outcome, and that was _terrifying_.

 

He sped down the lamp-lit streets on his bike, down the path that he had had memorized since grade school to Yamaguchi’s house, one hand balancing himself on the handlebars and the other frantically dialing his best friend’s number for what felt like the billionth time that night.

 

And then he was being thrown sideways off of his bike from a rock in his path, and as his left elbow connected with the ground he felt pain shooting through his entire arm, up through his shoulder.

 

Thankfully that was all he needed to catch himself, but it wasn’t like there was no damage done.

 

After a few stunned moments, Kei sat up, and straightened out his arm.

 

There was little pain with that, so that was good.

 

But he had completely torn up his elbow, and it was already bleeding profusely. With a few mumbled profanities, he pulled his sweatshirt sleeve down over the rest of his arm and stood back up to get on his bike again.

 

The injury was trivial compared to his concerns at the moment.

 

After stretching his knee which had taken a bit of the fall along with his elbow, Kei brushed off his hands on his jeans and he was off again.

 

The evening had started out as a normal Tuesday night. Kei had walked Yamaguchi home from practice, and then went back to his own house to finish up homework.

 

He had sat down at his desk, and put his phone on do not disturb so the only people he would get messages from were the captains, his parents, and Yamaguchi, and started reading through his essay for language arts.

 

He was halfway through editing the paper about the pollution across the waters in China when his phone began chiming incessantly.

 

After it had gone off three times in a row, Kei picked it up to check the notifications.

 

He read the messages from Tanaka and Nishinoya, confused.

 

Apparently Yamaguchi had gone completely radio silent, nobody was able to reach him.

 

Normally that wouldn’t have been concerning, but what Kei hadn’t seen was the way his school’s community on what felt like ever mainstream social media was overrun by Yamaguchi’s name.

 

He wasn’t completely sure of all the details, but from what he could figure out Yamaguchi was gay, and someone had outed him for no reason and now everything was blowing up.

 

So then you paired that with Yamaguchi’s radio silence and generally fragile emotional state...

 

Yeah, _Kei was definitely panicking_.

 

By the time his bike screeched to a halt in front of Yamaguchi’s house, Kei could feel the blood running down the back of his forearm, causing his sweatshirt to stick to his arm.

 

But he ignored it, he had worse things than a bloody elbow to worry about, and let his bike fall to the pavement as he ran up to the front door.

 

When he was met with a locked door Kei almost found himself crashing into it from the momentum.

 

_Of course._

 

Yamaguchi’s parents had the night shift on Tuesday’s, so he was on his own.

 

_Fuck, Yamaguchi was on his own._

 

Tsukishima wasted no time in pounding on the door a few times, “Yama— Tadashi! It’s Kei, open up!”

 

He paused for a moment, his fist hovering just in front of the door for a few moments, and just as he was about to knock again he heard the lock shifting, and moments later Yamaguchi opened the door.

 

His hair was a mess and his eyes were red and puffy from crying, but he was _fine_.

 

Kei swore he could feel the weight physically lift from his chest because Yamaguchi was **_okay_**.

 

_All the overthinking and anxiety and everything was for nothing. **Yamaguchi was alright**._

 

“So I take it you know?”

 

Yamaguchi was first to say something, his voice weak and shaky. Kei hadn’t heard his voice like that since their first year when his serve had almost lost them a match and he had broken down in a bathroom.

 

Kei nodded, “How couldn’t I?”

 

Yamaguchi laughed weakly, and wiped his face with his sweatshirt sleeve, “Yea, I guess it was a bit unrealistic to hope you wouldn’t find out.”

 

“I don’t care.”

 

He could see the tears threatening to drip down Yamaguchi’s face, even after he had tried to wipe them away.

 

“That you like guys, I don’t care that you’re gay.”

 

Yamaguchi looked at him like in his mind this was the least possible scenario, “R-really?”

 

That was the stupidest idea to Kei, why would he care?

 

And then he remembered that Yamaguchi didn’t know anything. He didn’t know about how many nights Kei was up just because the thought of Yamaguchi’s smile was preventing him from sleeping, or because their hands had brushed together as they walked or because Yamaguchi simply  _existed_ and the thought of that sometimes made Kei so happy it hurt.

 

_He had no idea._

 

Kei opened his mouth to say something, but Yamaguchi quickly cut him off, “Is that blood on your sweatshirt?”

 

He had completely forgotten about his elbow.

 

He lifted it up, and sure enough there was a dark patch on it that extended from his elbow down the back of his forearm, “Oh yea, I fell off my bike on the way here.”

 

Before Kei had a chance to register it Yamaguchi was pulling him into the house by the wrist and pulling the door shut as he led Tsukishima up the stairs silently.

 

“Yamaguchi,” Kei watched his friend’s back as he followed him up the stairs, his wrist still held tightly in Yamaguchi’s hand, “We should talk about this.”

 

“No, we shouldn’t,” Yamaguchi dismissed him as he pulled him into the bathroom and turned on the sink, grabbing a washcloth from the closet and sticking it under the faucet, “Roll up your sleeve.”

 

Kei sighed and pulled his sweatshirt off, wincing as the fabric pulled away from his skin, having been stuck there by blood.

 

He was mostly sure it was done bleeding, but it stung like hell when Yamaguchi began to wash the blood off of his elbow.

 

“Tanaka said that he and Nishinoya texted you like a million times,” Kei spoke again, he wasn’t just going to leave it, “Why didn’t you answer? You scared all of us half to death.”

 

Yamaguchi responded dismissively without looking up at Kei, rinsing the blood off of the cloth under the sink again, “I turned my phone off like any reasonable person who was just outed to the entire school would.”

 

“You couldn’t at least let us know, instead of just going silent?”

 

Yamaguchi was dismissive as he answered, “Yea because that would’ve made things so much better, you still would’ve worried and raced over here anyways.”

 

Kei frowned. There was one question he still had unanswered, “Why him?”

 

The whole thing had started because Yamaguchi had confessed to one of their classmates, who then proceeded to post a screenshot of it with Yamaguchi’s name. He hadn’t even bothered to respond.

 

Not like he was nice anyways, he was so not Yamaguchi’s type, Kei didn’t get it. He wasn’t sure if it was because he wanted Yamaguchi to like him instead so badly or what, but it didn’t make sense.

 

Yamaguchi paused for a moment at this question, dropping the bloodied washcloth in the sink, “It wasn’t supposed to be him.”

 

Tsukishima stayed quiet, not quite sure how to respond.

 

Yamaguchi stared into the sink as he washed the blood from the cloth, clearly avoiding looking at Kei, “It was supposed to be you. I wasn't wearing my contacts and misread the name, I had his number for a chem lab from earlier this week. He asked to copy my data, so I texted him the results."

 

Kei gave Yamaguchi what he was sure was a dumbfounded look, and stuttered for a moment before Yamaguchi interrupted him, “Yea, I’m sure you’re a lot less ‘I don’t care’ about the whole gay thing now.”

 

“N-no,” Kei shook his head as Yamaguchi pressed a band-aid to his elbow, wincing slightly, “Not really. I really don’t care Tadashi.”

 

Kei knew he should say something about how he liked Yamaguchi.

 

But there was a part of him that said now wasn’t the time.

 

Yamaguchi needed a friend to be there for him and with him through this, not a boyfriend. Not at the moment. Not yet.

 

So Kei stayed quiet as he slipped off the counter.

 

“Why?” Yamaguchi questioned still, “I just told you I’m gay and have been head over heels for you for ages, how do you not care at all?”

 

As he went on the volume of Yamaguchi’s rose and Kei could see the tears threatening to spill over in the corners of his eyes.

 

 _Shit_.

 

_He was going to have to say something._

 

“I don’t care because I’m head over heels for you too.”

 

It wasn’t intentional, but Kei dropped the volume of his voice as soon as he started talking.

 

He hadn’t told anybody about being gay _ever_.

 

_Yamaguchi was the first._

 

So even though Kei knew Yamaguchi wouldn’t have a problem with it — _it was terrifying._

 

There was silence for a few moments.

 

Then there wasn’t.

 

“So—“

 

Yamaguchi was quiet too now.

 

“What do we do now?”

 

“Take it slow,” Kei responded quickly, sure of what he wanted to do, “Until this all blows over and people get over it.”

 

“I—“ Yamaguchi paused a moment before nodding, “Yea. That sounds like a good idea.”

 

That night Kei and Yamaguchi slept in the same bed for the first time since middle school, just laying with each other in the silence, ignoring the possibilities of the day to come and the world outside their cocoon of blankets and warmth and caring for each other.

 

Because both knew it would all be okay as long as they were by each other's side.


End file.
